What we watched: The World Series, of course. I don't know how they're going to top this tomorrow night.

I did not watch this game at home, so I was spared the national narrative. I had my own, though. It was the walking wounded against the not-in-our-wildest-dreams team. I was pulling for the walking wounded. Josh Hamilton, despite his ridiculous God-talking ways, has one of the prettier swings in baseball. Mike Napoli's ankle is probably the size of Rhode Island right now and Nelson Cruz...well, it would have been better if he tweaked his groin going all out for Freese's "triple" in the ninth on Thursday, but whatever.

Nevertheless, I found myself sort of smiling as the Cardinals rushed each other after the last out. It just looked like fun. They weren't relieved, they were exuberant. We'll hear a lot in the coming days about pitching matchups, strategy and whatever else the 24-hour news cycle requires, but who cares, really? This was a fun World Series. The St. Louis Cardinals are 11-time World Series Champions. And hey, only 16 more and they match the Yankees. So put that in your pipe and smoke it, LaRussa.

Elsewhere

Emeritus: !!!!!!!!!!!!dnsgtttftgyarrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!! This has been the best sports experience of my life.

Just days after Elmer Fudd was fired as spokesperson, too: "We held out that joint hope together, but in light of the breakdown of talks, there will not be a full NBA season under any circumstances," he said. "It's not practical, possible or prudent to have a full season now," added Stern, who previously canceled the first two weeks of the season." [CBSSports]

Your Italian Prime Minister Perpetuating Reputations Interlude

Advantage, bachelorhood: "German tennis legend Boris Becker appeared in a Swiss court on Friday to dispute a 9,600 franc ($11,125) fee sought by the minister who presided at his wedding, Swiss news agency ATS reported...'I don't want to be a miser but this is five times the regular fee,' said Becker, who appeared in court in crutches due to an injured foot. 'The priest wants to rip me off,' he added." [TheLocal]

Baseball is over, it's going to snow in New York and college basketball is here: "North Carolina received all but three of the No. 1 votes cast by the 65-member national media poll, finishing well ahead of Kentucky, the team that eliminated the Tar Heels last season one step from the Final Four." [USAToday]

Merch: Managing editor Tom Scocca and contributing editor Drew Magary have both written books. You can buy Scocca's Beijing Welcomes You: Unveiling the Capital City of the Futurehere, and Magary's The Postmortalhere. Now do it.